Climate change is threatening "hell on Earth". The most aware generation is the teenage generation - who are the young climate activists and what are they up to?
Hell on Earth?
While global warming is a topic that at least some of society would still be able to argue about, the latest report from a specialised panel on climate change is quite clear: the planet is getting warmer and the situation will get worse in the future. The devastating fires that have engulfed California, Greece and Turkey, as well as the isolated heat waves that have been recorded in areas of Siberia and Canada, are proof of this. Similarly, other natural disasters such as massive floods or even unusual weather phenomena including tornadoes cannot be ignored. "The report shows that it will soon be absolutely impossible to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius unless immediate action is taken to reduce emissions quickly and drastically," says Lara Werner, a climate activist from Germany.
So the effects of the climate crisis are becoming increasingly apparent - and as environmental campaigners point out, truly radical action is needed to at least slow global warming. Why? Because otherwise, according to Tim Palmer, a professor at Oxford, we are literally facing "hell on Earth". Of course, one does not necessarily have to be at a prestigious university to be an active campaigner for change - as the teenage generation is proving.
There are, of course, a number of different organisations and associations active in the fight against global warming, and one of those made up of young people is a group known as Arctic Angels, which is championed by the environmental platform Global Choices. This brings together teenage activists from 23 countries around the world and supports them in developing and promoting national policies to push forward a range of environmental agendas from protecting forests or Arctic ice to trying to stop deep sea mining.
Young climate activists from around the world
Although climate activism is most often associated with Greta Thunberg, that certainly doesn't mean that she is the only one who is popularizing the topic of climate protection. One of the members of the Global Choices platform is American Lexi Haskins, who focuses on the acute climate change issues facing the world. "The earth is capable of some self-regulation, but humans have wrought an unprecedented amount of change on it that nature cannot keep up with," she says. And so his main focus is on raising awareness of the need to protect Arctic sea ice and also the impacts of rising temperatures on river levels in particular, but also the effects on drinking water supplies. "Water scarcity is evident all over the world today, as evidenced by areas where there is very limited or no access to drinking water, but also related to it are the spreading forest fires and the like," he adds.
Environmentalists also have their own representative in Latin America. Maria Alejandra Aguilar is from Colombia and perhaps that is why she also puts the climate crisis in the context of justice and human rights. "Although the climate crisis is a universal problem that affects the entire world without exception, it disproportionately affects only certain groups or populations," she explains, thus explaining that selected peoples who have been historically marginalized are also the most vulnerable to climate change due to cultural, economic and social segregation. "The climate crisis is here and we can watch it progress in real time. The most vulnerable populations such as women, children, migrants and ethnic or rural communities are bearing the brunt of its effects. For them, the struggle for survival is not a hypothetical question of future days, but a question of their daily lives," explains Maria, adding that empowering and fulfilling these overlooked groups, made up mainly of indigenous peoples, is part of the fight for climate and environmental justice, because without addressing this issue, there is no 'climate justice' as if it were de facto non-existent.
Mitzi Jonelle Tan from the Philippines, who is also one of the members of the Global Climate Group, also holds up a mirror to society. And she draws attention to the problem of melting glaciers - even though she herself lives in the Philippines, where it has never even snowed. "Some may ask why I, of all people, am interested in glaciers when I live in the Philippines. But we have to remember that the climate system cannot be treated in isolation, it is a complex and interconnected system, and it all starts with the Arctic, which is warming faster than ever before," she explains.
Climate activism as the domain of women?
The list of teenage or young climate activists could of course go on - but it would be more of a list of women activists. In fact, women are much more involved than men in the fight for the climate and to save the planet, and some even speak of a gender climate gap (a term derived from the original term for the unequal financial evaluation of women and men - the gender pay gap). According to some research, this is a consequence of the fact that women tend to be more pro-social, altruistic and empathetic, so they also show more concern for their environment and its future. "Research suggests that women show higher levels of socialisation in terms of caring for others and social responsibility - and this in turn leads them to be more concerned about environmental issues and also more willing to adopt more sustainable behaviours," explains expert lecturer Rachel Howell.
But some say that sustainability and environmentalism has become such a very feminine topic that, as a result, its "femininity" puts many men off. However, regardless of whether women really think about the planet more than men (not to mention the reasons why), the fact is that we all live on the Earth, and so - regardless of gender/gender - we should care for it too...
